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Yowza! The Jazz Singer Restored On DVD

Jazz_2 It's almost like a completely new movie. The restoration of The Jazz Singer for DVD is being talked about by everyone from AIn't It Cool's affable fat man Harry Knowles to the Gray Lady's Dave Kehr. Even more than the fine restoration, critics love the wealth of extras in the 3-DVD set.

The New York Times' Kehr enjoys the, "examples of two-color Technicolor (a process that flourished along with the early talkies); a brilliant Tex Avery cartoon parody, “I Love to Singa,” starring a feathered crooner named Owl Jolson; and a surprising rarity: a 1938 short, “Hollywood Handicap,” that features a brief appearance by Jolson but is more notable as the next to last directing credit of one of the medium’s fallen giants, Buster Keaton." Overall, it's "an evening’s entertainment on the Great White Way in the days when the bulbs burned most brightly."

Says Knowles about the film's extras, "This documentary ojn the advent and development of sound on film is spectacular.  And the 26 Vitaphone Vaudeville and music shorts from 1926 - 1930 are without a doubt worthy every last penny spent on this set."  The well-researched set indeed deserves the mounds of praise it's garnered: it was the first feature-length talkie, after all.

Posted by Harold Goldberg
October 16, 2007 2:33pm


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